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Breaking: Baccha-no-more?

By Bwog Staff on
Aug 11, 2014129 Comments

We feel the same way, sad family pet.

Just as Public Safety gears up for another round of NSLOPPY first-years, Bwog has received word that the spring concert organized by Bacchanal (a student organization run through ABC that is also responsible for Lowlapalooza) is under administrative review.

Citing “safety concerns associated with drinking and sexual harrassment,” the four undergraduate deans have officially cancelled a proposed fall concert (which would have taken place in September) and are considering canceling the annual spring event. Student leaders have told admins that “canceling Bacchanal was a misguided way to fight sexual assault, because it simply distracted from and disguised the underlying causes of sexual violence, rather than creating a campus culture in which students could safely participate in school­wide, community events.”

The full press release from multiple student executive boards—including the valiant battle between student leaders and the administration, some financial issues, and typical communication problems—is under the cut, along with a response from the Coalition Against Sexual Violence and No Red Tape.

We are disappointed to confirm that, despite our objections, a planned Fall Bacchanal concert that was set to take place this September has been cancelled, and this year’s Spring Bacchanal Concert has been placed under administrative review.

Following this year’s spring Bacchanal, the Bacchanal Committee met with the Activities Board at Columbia (ABC) and the four undergraduate Student Councils about the possibility of hosting the first Fall Bacchanal, in addition to the annual spring concert. The idea had first been discussed in early April and was solidified during F@CU sessions in the spring. The Office of Student Engagement, which is responsible for representing the administration to student groups and overseeing campus events, approved Fall Bacchanal on May 15th and secured Low Plaza as a concert venue. The first offer to a performer was submitted the following day and was signed off by Bacchanal’s advisor. Throughout May, June, and July, the Committee booked two more artists and was in frequent communication with the Office of Student Engagement about the event; administrators in the Office of Student Engagement themselves submitted signed offers for the three artists on June 5, June 23, and July 7. By July 8th all three artists were confirmed for a show on September 14.

Extensive planning was done by the Bacchanal Committee to ensure a safe and successful event. Further, every suggestion made to improve safety measures from Bacchanal’s advisors were met without hesitation. At no point was Bacchanal given any indication of administrative concerns until July 28, when Bacchanal CoPresident Benjamin Kornick was called into a meeting with the Bacchanal advisors from Student Engagement and the Interim Dean of Student Life. Ben was informed at the meeting that the four undergraduate deans had recently met and decided not to allow the fall show to proceed. During that meeting, no specific details were given as to the reasons behind the cancellation other than general comments about safety concerns associated with drinking and sexual harassment and that the concert was too close to the start of the school year.

The following day, the four undergraduate Councils and ABC met with members of the Bacchanal Committee to address the sudden cancellation. On Tuesday morning, Bacchanal Executive Board members sent emails to the four undergraduate deans requesting more information about the reasoning behind the cancellation. The email requested the opportunity to meet and discuss the cancellation so the committee and Councils could attempt to first understand and then address the deans’ concerns. None of these emails received any response. On Wednesday, July 30, one of the Council presidents met with their undergraduate dean and received a preliminary explanation for the cancellation. That night, representatives of the Bacchanal Committee, the executive boards of all four undergraduate student Councils, and ABC wrote a letter detailing numerous concerns regarding the cancellation, including the fact that this decision was made without any consultation with students, after approval had been given for months, and after artists had been confirmed, meaning that, in line with standard industry practice, the Bacchanal Committee would still be obligated to pay $55,000 of undergraduate student life fees to the artists whether or not they performed. The letter further stated students’ belief that canceling Bacchanal was a misguided way to fight sexual assault, because it simply distracted from and disguised the underlying causes of sexual violence, rather than creating a campus culture in which students could safely participate in schoolwide, community events. The letter also articulated several proposals to make Bacchanal a safer event for students.

This letter was sent to the four undergraduate deans on Thursday morning, signed by the executive boards of all four undergraduate Councils, the executive board of ABC, the executive board of SGB, the executive board of GBB, and all six undergraduate University Senators, addressing every concern we were made aware of from the deans’ perspectives, and addressing the deans’ lack of direct communication with the Bacchanal Committee. Council members requested that the undergraduate deans meet with the Bacchanal Committee.

On Friday, August 1st, various Council members and Bacchanal CoPresident Meredith Venerus were able to speak to other undergraduate deans. The deans outlined their concerns surrounding safety at the concert, and agreed to communicate more directly with the Bacchanal Executive Board going forward. On Monday, a formal safety proposal was submitted to the four deans, detailing effective measures to improve crowd control and fight excessive drinking. Similar details had previously been provided to Student Engagement. The proposal also suggested changes to the concert theme that would convey a positive message, address the deans’ concerns, and facilitate a change in campus culture. Other safety measures were proposed, including plans to give out backstage passes to students who participated in bystander intervention trainings provided by Sexual Violence Response and hosted by Bacchanal, to provide water stations and food inside the fences, and to bar graduate students from the event (graduate students accounted for six out of thirteen CUEMS hospital transports at Bacchanal 2013). It is also worth mentioning that we offered to move the concert to a seated venue if that was what it took to provide the security the deans required to reverse the cancellation and sign off on the event.

The letter also requested for the deans to meet with the Bacchanal Committee before deciding the fate of the event for a second time. On Friday, August 8, the Deans responded to the Bacchanal Committee and the four Councils, thanking them for their thoughtful proposals but writing that the cancellation of the Fall Concert was final and putting the status of the annual spring event in question. However, a second decision was made without meeting with the Bacchanal Committee to hear their perspective and give them a chance to alleviate any concerns. The deans agreed to cover the $55,000 that Bacchanal owed to the artists due to contracts that had already been approved. While the student group will be reimbursed, we feel this is an unacceptable waste of money that would have otherwise gone towards meeting student needs a waste that could have easily been avoided through open communication.

We are concerned and troubled by the process of this cancellation and the lack of
communication with students in making this decision. We strongly believe Bacchanal is a valuable community-building event and that this event can be held safely. Had the deans raised their concerns with the Bacchanal Committee and the four Councils earlier in the process, we could have worked together to find solutions to all concerns. Instead, approval was granted and then revoked, without consultation with any students involved. It is our sincere hope that this will be an impetus for change; we believe students should have direct and open communication with decisionmakers. We also believe that $55,000 is too steep a price to pay for miscommunication within the administration, and it is our hope that future decisions— including the approval of the annual Spring Bacchanal concert—will be conducted in collaboration with student groups.

The Coalition Against Sexual Violence is deeply troubled by the Columbia administration’s choice to cancel the Fall Bacchanal concert and to place the spring concert under review. We feel strongly that this is a band-aid, not a solution, in the fight against sexual assault on Columbia’s campus. The goal of our work is and has always been to create a culture of consent on campus which makes all events and spaces safe for students — cancelling Bacchanal sends the false message that the concert is the cause of sexual violence.

Harassment and assault at Bacchanal may be more visible, but sexual violence is prevalent throughout the year, and will happen in Columbia residence halls, buildings, and events whether or not this event takes place. These incidents will still occur; they’ll just occur in EC or John Jay, instead of Low Steps. Cancelling the event only serves to ignore and distract from the true reasons for sexual violence on campus — inadequate consent education, a lack of accountability, and rape culture. Bacchanal does not create these conditions, and we feel strongly that cancelling it is a misguided decision which restricts students’ choices rather than working towards a community where we can all safely interact, learn, and grow together.

This year, the Bacchanal Committee had several proposals to make the event one which promotes a safer, responsible community, in which students hold each other accountable for their actions. These safety proposals included training dozens of students in bystander intervention (consistently found to be one of the most effective methods in fighting sexual assault) to be student safety monitors during the concert. Bacchanal suggested giving backstage meet-the-artists passes to students volunteers as an incentive to be trained in bystander intervention by Sexual Violence Response and to serve as student safety monitors, who could be placed throughout the crowd, intervene in any dangerous situations, and be easily identified by any students who felt uncomfortable at any point. This method has been effective at ensuring safety at other student events, such as GenderF*ck. Not only would this serve to make the concert environment safer, this would also provide an opportunity for dozens of people to be trained in bystander intervention, skills that they could carry out into the larger community.

Finally, CASV strongly believes that a culture of consent can only be built within a strong community deeply rooted in respect. A large, community-building event like Bacchanal acts as one of the only campus wide events that undergraduates have to bring them together. We believe Bacchanal, an important community-wide event, can and should be used as a locus of cultural change. Cancelling the concert not only distracts from the real causes of sexual violence, it prevents us from taking valuable steps that may actually combat sexual violence.
Ultimately, we’re concerned that cancelling the fall concert will only hide highly visible instances of assault and silence survivors, sweeping sexual violence back under the rug instead of taking affirmative steps to fight it.

At least one member of the Coalition is in dissent with this statement.

Update (10:09 pm): No Red Tape issued the following statement.

We are dismayed by the four undergraduate Deans’ recent decision to cancel the Bacchanal fall concert and place the spring concert under review.

We are acutely aware that sexual violence is a problem at Columbia University and that perpetrators of sexual violence often take advantage of social events, particularly those where alcohol and drug use is common, to assault members of our community. This is completely unacceptable.

However, we do not agree that canceling the event is a way to address these serious concerns.

The reason that sexual assault has been an issue at Bacchanal is not because of Bacchanal itself. It is because of rape culture. Without Bacchanal, there will still be assaults and there will still be violence on campus. It will simply be less visible. The administration’s idea that canceling Bacchanal will eliminate violence shows their complete misunderstanding of the root of violence and places blame on alcohol or drugs instead of a culture in which we do nothing when those around us are hurt.

There are concrete, tangible, practical changes that can be made to make Bacchanal–and our campus culture–safer. We stand firmly by the proposals we have made in the past for mandatory, continuous prevention programming for all students, especially bystander intervention training. By empowering every member of the Columbia community to recognize and stop violence when it occurs, we can severely curtail the social license to operate that enables perpetrators of sexual violence, which in turn will decrease violence. As student council and Bacchanal staff leaders have already suggested, training student safety monitors to maintain the safety of Bacchanal would be a fantastic way to enjoy our spring concert while ensuring that perpetrators do not take advantage of the event to violate others’ boundaries.

Strengthening and expanding Public Safety’s training program to better respond to incidents of sexual and domestic violence is also an important step that administrators can take to make Bacchanal safer. Significantly reforming our investigation and adjudication process to hold perpetrators accountable when they rape or assault other students will serve as a powerful deterrent to perpetrators if they know Columbia sees sexual violence not as a PR problem but its top priority in eradicating.

Canceling a concert does nothing to actually prevent sexual violence. Contrary to the implications of this decision, the vast majority of Columbia students are not perpetrating violence. They simply aren’t trained to prevent it or intervene when it happens. This will be the case at a dorm or fraternity party, at a local bar, or a concert off campus. If the Deans truly cared about ending violence, they would listen to students and take the steps we have outlined here and in countless meetings.

Ending violence is not easy. It will require us to try multiple initiatives and mandate serious prevention programming for the entire Columbia community. Because violence will not stop by canceling a concert. It will stop when this administration recognizes and takes serious steps to dismantle rape culture.

Note: One NRT member dissents on this issue. All others are in consensus about this statement.

129 Comments

@Anonymous Have every student at Columbia continuously email all 4 undergraduate deans, student life deans, and other administrators every few hours with an email. We have to show them that thousands of students care.

@peaches I promise columbia they’re not getting another penny when I graduate, and when I get an alumni call or alumni letter or alumni email, I will respond with this article and an 8.5″ x 11″ of my middle finger.

@Anonymous CU cancelled bacchanal as a retaliatory measure to make us hate the feminists (as if we didn’t already). that way, we subconsciously blame these fuckers. without these ridiculous, self-righteous attention whores who call drunk sex rape (which is the worst argument ever bc that means both parties rape each other! not just the girl) forced a GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT doctrine. under the most retarded of all interpretations of title ix.

Now, self-respecting men have decided not to take the feminist’s blatant disregard of men’s equal right to due process sitting down. The falsely-accused have taken the issue to court, and rightly so.

Columbia doesn’t like this. Legal cases are costly, and often lengthy.

If it werent enough that its students cried wolf about rape and have demonized Columbia in the media, Columbia now has to deal with legal cases. Clearly, Columbia is fed up with its student body’s sophomoric behavior.

So, they have given their feminist’s exactly what they wanted. A rape free environment. If the feminist’s protest, they look like hypocrites. Columbia can improve its public image while punishing those responsible for hurting its bank account, and squandering its time with lawsuits.

All of you will undoubtedly attack this post because you hate hearing the truth. Sure, I was a bit brusque with the assertion that most were false rape accusation (not all were, but at least one). But, people can’t handle the truth. So glad I left this school for a much better one where people aren’t dumb as shit. To be fair, many of the people involved in causing these school-wide issues are Barnardians, and not Columbians. Feminism tends to attract uglier women, and dumber women who cannot cut it in sciences.

@Anonymous Get the councils & students together for a protest on Low Plaza during NSOP and invite NY Times/NY Post/Local Press. Have people tell reporters that instead of actually addressing the underlying concerns of sexual violence, Columbia is only seeking to band-aid the situation.

@eh I’m all up for getting organized and pissed off but I sure hope as hell that the Times doesn’t actually think this story fit for coverage. I mean like, you know about the other stuff going on in the world right now, right?

*Bacchanal might be canceled* (high pitched scream) CALL THE NEW YORK TIMES!!!!!

@Ok really Can you please take a step back and realize what a laughingly privileged thing it is to believe with all your heart that the Times should be covering the hemisphere-shaking catastrophe of a college concert getting canceled? Like, “Tensions mounting and confrontations escalating in Ferguson, MO, after the shooting of an unarmed teen by the police. Also breaking news: Columbia University students threaten to throw rocks at administrative buildings after fall concert is canceled. Not after it was reported that another rapist was excused. Not after it was discovered that the school was hospitalizing people against their will. After they canceled a concert.”

@god fucking damn it the fact that this is being framed as out of concern for sexual assault is so fucking infuriating. NONE of the activism pushing for sexual violence prevention on campus has had ANYTHING to do with bacchanal – it’s about disciplinary processes, support for survivors, improved access to resources, and training/education. is the administration seriously so bone-headed that instead of addressing the ACTUAL CONCERNS of students, they’re attacking a completely unrelated and well-loved campus tradition under the guise of “caring”?

@CC 2016 Actually it might be a deluded response to sexual assaults, one that smacks of victim blaming. Our fun is what causes this bad shit to happen; if undergrads didn’t get drunk and party they’d be more aware of people trying to abuse them. We have a clear choice, study all day or get sexually assaulted.

@BC'16 Hats off to those who wrote this press release — not that the administration is known for responding to reason, let alone putting it to use.

55k is almost the cost of a full year’s tuition. This is an insult to the parents who work so hard to pay that and to the students who enjoy bacchanal (sober or otherwise!) safely and responsibly, as well as gross approach to a misunderstood sexual assault problem on our campus on the part of the administration.

@Anonymousk the deans are paying for it out of their budgets and those budgets are filled with money that students pay. so we’re still paying $55 grand for their mistakes. the loss is just being shifted from one bucket to another. that’s like 5,500 burritos…

@Community-builder Stage sit-ins vs NSOP. 55k is almost a year’s tuition for someone on financial aid; while a party might seem insignificant, the only way to get their attention and communicate that “business as usual” is unacceptable is to shut down orientation activities and the start of classes.

@An Idea Dear Columbia Administration:
Here’s a tip: If you want to decrease and discourage sexual assaults from occurring on campus TRY CONVICTING SEXUAL ASSAULT SUSPECTS WHO HAVE STRONG EVIDENCE AGAINST THEM! Studies show that when there is a strong punishment enforced people think there could be severe consequences for their crime and thus are less likely to do it. Just a thought.

@Anonymous Except those are different crimes, and we’re talking about different deterrents? There ARE studies that show that communities that take reports of sexual assault seriously and hold perpetrators accountable have lower rates of assault.

@Anonymous the university pulls shit like this with smaller student groups all the time only now its escalated to an outrageous point.

student leaders of student groups spend most of their time working on their groups and this shows that the university has absolutely no respect whatsoever for the work we do. they want to tout it in brochures and on tours, but at the end of the day they could care less if we have vibrant extracurricular lives.

@Anonymous ‘Safety concerns over sexual harassment’….there is .no doubt that’s a cop-out and an affront to all the hard-working advocacy groups on campus. However, as far as the drinking goes, we’ve been on thin ice for a while now with the administration. It was only a matter of time.

@Anonymous We have a slightly lower yield rate because the College cross admits with Harvard, Yale and Princeton, and Engineering cross admits with MIT. Penn does not cross admit with those schools. We also take fewer early admits, which also effects yield significantly. Harvard and Princeton take upwards of 60-65% early, Columbia takes about 40%.

@CC 15 Can you imagine if someone tried to use this excuse to ban an entire group of people from participating in a campus event? “Half of the behavioral incidents at last year’s X were from members of Y group, so no one in that group can come this year.” And are we really going to pretend there weren’t a ton more than 6 undergrads who were CAVA-level drunk? (I bet one reason undergrads weren’t CAVA-ed as much is because at Bacchanal we’re usually part of a big group where actively avoiding CAVA-ing is part of the mission.)

@echoing what people have said but still need to vent shutting down one event to prevent x number of sexual assaults is not a solution to the problem. sexual offenders don’t NEED bacchanal to assault someone; they find plenty of other ways to do it.

what pisses me off is there is this subtle implication that sexual violence at columbia is just our own fault because obviously we all just drink too much, get soOOoO crazy at bacchanal, and just start attacking each other… when in reality the problem is our administration’s lack of any sort of real support system or effective judicial process for perpetrators.

@cc'13 The referenced comment does not say that preventing x number of sexual assaults is wrong. It suggests that while cancelling a campus event may prevent x number of sexual assaults, it does not address the actual issue. As the comment stated, there are other ways/places/means for sexual offenders to assault someone. Cancelling Bacchanal is like cutting off one finger on a gangrenous hand. Don’t get all uppity because you think you found someone condoning sexual assault; just read the comment more closely.

@i'd like to hear... from the members of NRT and CSV who dissented with their organization’s statements. is it that they personally don’t like bacchanal, that they think canceling bacchanal *is* a good sexual assault prevention move, or………?

@To be fair Their reasoning was grounded in serious concern for student safety that were clearly given more thought than anything the admin has provided. However, I won’t pretend to speak for this person. Only to express that their dissent was grounded in ending a culture of rape as opposed to one of public image the way columbia seems to be doing.

@fuck you, columbia no seriously. this is a flagrant, symbolic middle-finger to sexual assault survivors on this campus, and every one of their friends and supporters. not because bacchanal is *so important*, but because there are administrators who were paid actual money, to waste even more money, on doing something nobody asked for, which will have no positive effect beyond their little press release–rather than doing LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE to make this community safer and more supportive

@Bubblewrap Fest Don’t worry students, we’ve replaced this horrible event with Bubblewrap fest. We’ll listen to single-a-longs from Barney & Friends while wearing SFPE approved bubblewrap boiler-suits. Water only, because we all know the harmful effects of sugar and caffeine. We don’t want to get to excited kids.

@Bacchanal (behind 7 firewalls) Look, I’m on the Bacchanal Exec. Board. Since I already spilled the beans in two other threads, I might as well post this in public. We had Arcade Fire, Coldplay and Muse lined up for the fall show. Yeah, alt. rock. Wanted to change the pace. We’re pretty fucking pissed at what happened, but we don’t blame NRT or any other of the anti-sexual violence folks… In fact, we would’ve welcomed measures to make the show a safer place. Bang up job, Columbia

@Not outraged To be honest, I’m on the administration’s side. Bacchanal is without doubt a dangerous environment. Not that I have anything against binge drinking or drugs. I enjoy both, but it’s kind of wrong for Columbia to implicitly sanction it.

@Abdullah The decision to cancel highlights the inherent problem or contradiction in the feminist fight against “rape culture.” Modern feminism has become an ideological justification for a libertine, non-judgmental party culture (see university “sex weeks,” bacchanal parties etc.) However, said culture increases the likelihood that some women will fall victim to assault and rape from predators who take advantage of the loosening of social norms. Feminists have to realize that some sexual norms and traditions are quite useful and protect us all from the evil that lurks on all campuses. I support the administration’s decision.

@Au contraire Mr abdulla.. Your comment highlights the reason why the feminist fight must go on. When you say that Columbia should cancel an event because it “increases the likelihood that some women will fall victim to assault and rape”….you are ignoring the heart of the issue. A women should have the right to act however she sees fit to act at a party–without any fear of being sexually assaulted. Period. The party environment itself is not the problem. The problem lies with the people who have no respect for human dignity and think they have a free pass to assault and rape. Regardless of whether Bacchanal happens, these people will continue to target their victims. Canceling Bacchanal is futile. It does absolutely nothing because it doesn’t address the source of the issue.

@Anonymous Yeah just do walk around drunk in Brownsville because you should be able to do whatever you want without fear of repercussions like being robbed/raped since it is NOT OKAY that bad people exist in this world and it’s not incumbent on you to be aware of them or take precautions around them.

@Another voice “A women should have the right to act however she sees fit to act at a party–without any fear of being sexually assaulted. Period.”

Man or woman, you cannot expect to get blackout drunk and have control over what happens to your body.

As a woman, I have two choices to protect myself until there are no more serial rapists or perverts in the world: get smashed and hope they’re not in the house that day (because everyone else is too drunk to protect me), or take precautions. I happen to think there are a lot of disgusting people in the world, who I am not apologizing for, but who I want to protect myself from. The solution is not to get drunk in an unsafe environment.

The administration cannot stop sexual assaults from happening; they can only punish the perpetrators. It’s up to students not only to protect others but to protect themselves. They can weed out the rapists, but we can pre-emptively stop the conditions of rape–which are sex with people you don’t know well, and conditions in which everyone is too drunk to stop it from happening.

Final point of what I admit is a rant: Bacchanal, people say, is Columbia’s only day of campus-wide community. This is personal, but I don’t think it’s the best kind of community. I think it’s sad that people assume they have to get drunk and party to enjoy Bacchanal.

@maybe they're genius? Has anyone considered that maybe the administration is just trying to scare the student body into behaving? Maybe this is a great thing! They won’t actually cancel the spring concert but imagine everyone on campus thinking it’s a possibility. Who would want their one night of sexual power to cancel an event for the entire student body? I definitely would not want bachannal’s cancellation to be my fault. Let’s see how the campus vibe changes in the fall when everyone is on their best behavior before we really claim the admins don’t understand sexual assault.

@Sarcasm? Or are you just stupid? Or do you really think an undergraduate body of 6000 kids is gonna collectively change their behavior in order to maybe, maybe influence the administration to preserve one event in second semester?

@consider this If anything, it won’t decrease sexual assault, it just might make victims remain silent because they’ll fear that their peers will get mad at them for getting the event cancelled. This is literally just going to harm victims even more, and force more silence (which is already a problem).

@Stop Whining Oh boo hoo hoo, the big bad Columbia administration canceled an event at which literally hundreds of kids got hammered drunk, did all sorts of drugs, and some kids committed sexual assault. No shit they did. Is Columbia just supposed to accept cave’s and rape as the unfortunate side effects of an indispensable community building concert? Grow up.

@kj I kinda see what the administration is doing here. Last year i was on the steps and these girls in front of me were jumping up and down and seeing their boobs jiggle gave me an erection. Now due to the close quarters and my above average size my boner was far enough out that when one girl stumbled back she bumped into it and i mean full ass to dick bump too. Now im not normally about doin it in the stinky. and my mind was telling me no, but my body was telling me yes and I jizzed. She must not have noticed what had happened because she kept jumping up and down and got covered in my man milk. And kids that’s how i met your mother.

@Too cynical? Can it be that perhaps the administration is doing this as retaliation against the student body for hurting their reputation with the sexual assault lawsuit? This discourages students from reporting university wrongdoing in the future. It’s the plan of an evil genius

@Anonymous remember that time the administration wanted to get to the core of campus wide mental health issues? ….. so they then proceeded to place bars on all the windows . i’m starting to see a trend.